The art world can be hard to navigate: hard to find the right person at the right organisation; hard to find funding or finance; hard to make the time and space you need to keep working. How do other artists do it? Self Assembly showcases the different paths artists take to sustain their practice while still paying the bills, and shares the ways in which artists in a variety of circumstances, working in a variety of ways, get the opportunities they get.
Most artist presentations talk only about the professional side of practice - the exhibitions, residencies and other opportunities gained throughout a career; the bits that make an artist into a professional artist. Self Assembly seeks to lift the lid on how artists actually manage their time and money, balance the demands of work and life, and still get round to making work.
There are as many different ways to be an artist as there are artists, and we believe that artists are the best experts on how practices works. Self Assembly seeks to share these tricks of the trade and the inside information artists need to orient themselves in the part of the art world they choose to inhabit.
By meeting more artists and sharing ideas, you increase the network you can rely on for help when you need it, meet potential collaborators and learn from the mistakes of others.